International Cataloguing Standards Committee

Since its formation in 1981, the International Cataloguing Standards Committee has worked to achieve uniformity of cataloguing standards throughout the world in a time of increasing internationalization of Thoroughbred breeding, racing, and marketing. The committee is made up of representatives of the racing authorities, breeders' organizations, and international auction houses of four major breeding and racing countries (England, France, Ireland, and the United States). The Organzicion Sudamericana de Fomento del Pura Sangre de Carrera (O.S.A.F.) has had one representative since 1995 and the Asian Racing conference has had one since 1996. The committee is making recommendations to the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers.

The committee seeks to achieve uniformity by making International Cataloguing Standards the single most authoritative, comprehensive, practical, and accepted publication dealing with "black type" throughout the Thoroughbred world. In 1985 the committee set forth conditions under which a country could make the transition from Part II to Part I, and invited applications from those countries seeking to make this transition.

In October of 1985, after careful evaluation of the various applications, the committee welcomed Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa and Uruguay into Part I. The committee found: 1) that racing in these countries is of sufficient stature in terms of number of horses competing, number of races contested, and purse monies distributed to justify their classification as being among the world's major racing countries; 2) that the number and percentage of races given group, graded or "black type" status in these countries is consistent with the pattern of racing in them without being disproportionate to the ration of such races in the countries already in Part I; and 3) that the group or graded and listed races in these countries are, in fact, the highest class races contested within them.

Following is a complete review of all countries in Part I for the 1992 publication, the number of graded and listed races was reduced for several countries and Uruguay was demoted to Part II.

The International Cataloguing Standards Committee realizes that its goal can be achieved only through annual review and continuing refinement of its criteria. It is also the committee's hope and desire that all countries offering Thoroughbred racing will strive to meet the international criteria.